This is Ruth Reichl's first novel. This is certainly not great literature and it's rather trite, but there's good food and a mildly interesting plot element which is worthwhile in the middle even if it fizzles out at the end. This is strictly fun with your brain turned off.

30 January 2015

This is a smaller site tucked between Sayil and Labna that a lot of people skip. I think it's worth going to, but since most of the people we saw this day were with a guide coming down from Merida, I can see why they didn't go here. The decoration is beautiful.

This was an interesting expat book by a women who ended up living in Saudi for decades after having no interest in going there in the first place (they never do). It focused a lot on her though, and how she entertained herself in the country and the important people she worked with, but you can tell she loves the place and that's always good to read even if she and I wouldn't have been expat buddies.

29 January 2015

This was our first site along the Ruta Puuc south of Santa Elena. We did all the the sites that are officially on the route except Loltun since it's further away and involves no pyramids. Caves are cool, but this was the pyramid adventure.

So this really is a book about apples. There are some recipes at the end but mostly it's about a lot of the apples of the world. Even Central Asian wild apples get a mention (and I finally have a recipe that I can use with all the little apples that people sell off their trees in Kyrgyzstan). I didn't try any recipes because Mexico has only Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, and Galas (and a few others in the big grocery stores, plus a few unidentified types from northern Mexico that I get at Abastos), but when I get back to Virginia, I'll get this one again. It was lovely to read.

28 January 2015

Apparently a man from Tabasco lived near this site in the late 1800s and that's why it picked up this name.

The site is 6 km north of Dzibalchen with a turnoff on the west side of the road. They're working on upgrading it to a site where you have to pay a fee, but when we went the road was still awful- by far the worst road we drove on during the whole trip. But since they've built bathrooms there and are putting up better signs (there's a good one if you're coming from the south, but it's easy to miss the sign if you're coming from the north), I expect they'll fix the road and start charging around 39 pesos to visit before too much longer. I'm glad the road wasn't closed while we were there.

It's a pleasant, small, and peaceful site. No one was sitting at the desk when we arrived, but there were people raking at the site and they called the entrance guy so we could sign in when we left. We were the only visitors.

I read this because it was recommended on NPR and I liked it a lot, especially after living in a Latin American country for a while. Definitely worth reading and I think the author did a good job with a major task.

I've started reading books by expats in Saudi Arabia. This was the first and it's a little different because, while the author was raised in the West, she's Muslim. I think the combination of her perceptions about life as a woman raised in the UK and educated in the US with her Muslim identify while living in Saudi is fascinating. And you don't find many expat books where the author is able to go on the Hajj. I'm glad I read this one first.

26 January 2015

I'd had this as a possible site to visit, but we weren't sure about going there since it was a bit of a drive off the main road. But when we were at Tohcok, the man there said it was the place site in the area to visit and said there was a better road there than Google Maps knew about so we went there next. I'm glad we did.

They think it was settled in 400 BC which makes this a rather old site and it was abandoned around 1000. It's a large site with lots of places to poke around. Almost no one was there. It mostly has Chenes-style architecture which is mostly found south of this site around Dzibilchen, but also some Puuc influence from up closer to Uxmal.

There's a turnoff just north of Hopelchen to the site and you follow the road for about 20-30 minutes to get there. It's a little narrow, but it didn't have much traffic and it's paved the whole way. We did get stuck waiting for corn to be loaded. The road was lovely with yellow flowers crowding us.

25 January 2015

There's not a lot to see at this since since most of it hasn't been excavated, but it's right on the road just outside Hopelchen and easy to stop at. There's also a friendly and chatty man working there who convinced us to go to Xtampak next.

The first photo is a typical Mayan house. Also, we saw lots and lots of iguanas on this trip.

24 January 2015

After Edzna we drove into Campeche in search of a place to stay where we could watch the national championship football game on ESPN. After trying a few places, we found a rather unique hotel a few buildings down from the cathedral. It's not the sort of place I'd have expected to watch American football, but it worked nicely, especially since there was a very local and inexpensive restaurant a couple more buildings down.

Campeche's old city is a UNESCO site and it really is a lovely place. I wish we'd had more time there, but at least we had a little time. There are city walls from the days of pirate attacks.